SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR VISITS HQ SOUTH EAST ASIA COMMAND (29/9/1945)

Synopsis

Shot on 29 September 1945: An Avro York transport aircraft taxiing; it has the 'phoenix' badge of the Supreme Allied Commander on its nose. Lawson steps down from the aircraft followed by Lord Louis Mountbatten (Supreme Allied Commander (SAC)) and General Sir William Slim (commander Allied Land Forces South East Asia). Lawson and Mountbatten talking. Mountbatten drives a jeep away with Lawson in the passenger seat. Slim departs by staff car. Another staff car departs.

Shot on 30 September…

Shot on 29 September 1945: An Avro York transport aircraft taxiing; it has the 'phoenix' badge of the Supreme Allied Commander on its nose. Lawson steps down from the aircraft followed by Lord Louis Mountbatten (Supreme Allied Commander (SAC)) and General Sir William Slim (commander Allied Land Forces South East Asia). Lawson and Mountbatten talking. Mountbatten drives a jeep away with Lawson in the passenger seat. Slim departs by staff car. Another staff car departs.

Shot on 30 September 1945: Mountbatten and Lawson get out of a jeep. They talk briefly before Lawson boards a Dakota transport for a flight to Delhi. Dakota taxiing out of shot. Distant shot of Dakota.

Jack Lawson, Secretary of State for War in Clement Attlee's newly-elected Labour government, visits the headquarters of South East Asia Command (SEAC).

Notes

1945 saw Clement Attlee's Labour Party withdraw from the wartime coalition government and prompt a General Election, which they won in a spectacular landslide. Jack Lawson, MP for Chester-le-Street, was appointed Secretary of State for War and was tasked with demobilising Britain's large and far-flung armed forces. In doing so he completed a 35,000 mile round trip of India and the Far East, including this visit to SEAC headquarters.

Lawson's far eastern tour was extensively covered. For other footage, see related items.

During parts of this film the exposure varies noticeably, probably the result of camera malfunction.

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Production Organisations

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